In the case of Jospeh Ngala, who was initially appointed as a communications officer in June 2006 and later that year as operational manager, the report said the internal audit had not been provided with any of the qualifications he had claimed to have, including a diploma or degree in communications or marketing and a minimum of three years in a municipal environment. (Twitter/JosephNgala2)
The City of Mbombela employed, and in some cases promoted, a number of key managers from 2006 who did not have the necessary qualifications for the positions.
Although a 2021 report by the city’s internal audit unit to its municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) recommended immediate dismissal of those employees who had misrepresented their qualifications, council sources say they are still working.
According to the report, an investigation into the qualifications of seven senior employees at the time of their appointment — including communications manager and city spokesperson Joseph Ngala — was commissioned by the MPAC because of concerns about recruitment processes and the quality of vetting.
The majority of the appointments were made during 2006 in the wake of the amalgamation of the White River, Hazyview and Nelspruit transitional local and regional councils into a single municipality in December 2000.
The report found that of the seven managers, two did not have the necessary qualifications and had misrepresented their qualifications in their job applications. Two others had been shortlisted and employed in posts that required degrees when they only held diplomas, but neither of these individuals had misrepresented themselves.
The investigation was unable to make a finding with regard to one manager whose identity number did not match that on his matric certificate and it had not been able to secure authorisation from the seventh person.
Only one person out of the seven had the necessary qualifications.
The internal audit unit recommended that employees who “do not have qualifications and misrepresented themselves should be held responsible and possible disciplinary actions should be considered”.
It also said those responsible for recruitment who had failed to perform due diligence in “ensuring the existence of qualifications” should be held responsible and that disciplinary action against them should be considered.
And it recommended that the senior managers without the necessary qualifications should be referred back to corporate services “so that a plan can be drawn in line with skills development plan, labour law and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act”.
The report said the internal audit had finalised verification in the cases where it did not find any instance of misrepresentation by the employees.
“Although some do not have the qualifications, the employees honestly represented themselves and the municipality took a decision to appoint them regardless of their qualifications,” it said. “We also noted that there is inconsistency in the application of the recruitment policy, as there are employees who do not have the required qualifications but are awarded with the positions.
“This matter should be addressed with the managers that appointed senior managers without the qualifications and the human resources section should come up with the plan to ensure that the employees take courses in line with their positions and those courses are completed at a particular period.”
The report recommended that “possible disciplinary actions” be taken by the city’s corporate services division against Ngala and a second employee in the communications division for misrepresenting their qualifications.
The officials who signed off on the appointments “are responsible for this internal control failure” and did not perform due diligence to establish whether they had the qualifications.
In the case of Ngala, who was initially appointed as a communications officer in June 2006 and later that year as operational manager, the report said the internal audit had not been provided with any of the qualifications he had claimed to have, including a diploma or degree in communications or marketing and a minimum of three years in a municipal environment.
Ngala was appointed as senior manager, corporate communications, in August 2016, after acting in the post for several years, based on a council recommendation that he be placed if he met the necessary requirements.
“No formal qualifications were found on the file. The official responsible for files within the skills unit indicates that he does not have any qualification except those training courses,” the report read. “We further requested the qualifications to be submitted by Mr Ngala who did not submit anything until the date of this report.”
Ngala only had sector education and training authority short courses, which “cannot be regarded as formal education”.
Internal audit had requested that Ngala confirm the existence of the qualifications on his CV and application forms, but he had failed to do so “and as such we conclude that Mr Ngala does not have the required qualifications for the position currently occupied”, the report said, adding that Ngala had “misrepresented himself” when applying for both posts and his appointment was not fair because it was based on invalid information.
The internal audit had not been able to identify the panellists responsible for the shortlisting of Ngala, whose appointment had been signed off on by senior legal manager Mojaki Mosala and former municipal manager Neil Diamond.
The report recommended that “those who failed to ensure that Mr Ngala meets the qualification requirements before being promoted into the senior manager position be held responsible”.
The misrepresentation of qualifications was “a serious matter that should not be tolerated” and recommended disciplinary action “to be fair to all officials”.
“Immediate dismissal is regarded as a substantially fair sanction,” it said.
It further recommended that the city’s corporate services division stop the practice of employing candidates with diplomas for posts that required degrees. “This should not be done as the department then does not comply with its own policy.”
Ngala had not responded to calls and messages from the Mail & Guardian at the time of writing.
MPAC member Sanley van der Merwe said the committee was waiting to hear what action had been taken.
“Council has not received a progress or close off report on this matter. There has been no feedback to MPAC either,” she said.